There have been a lot of festivals ,
some famous=woodstock
some infamous=altamont
This is how the Dead did it.
First and foremost dig the music.
These are 3 very strong sets.
Jams in P.I.TB and Dark Star are yummy ear candy.
Just about every tune of this show is done with serious gusto and reckless abandon.
Second check out the film Sunshine Daydream
Hippies doing their hippie thing
Idealistic -yes -perhaps
but some of my favorite scenes
are just getting the stage up
all the elbow grease and moxy
that it takes to get set up.
A special mention of all the children
in the film
being about 6 years old during this show
(but not at this show)
I can still relate to the great childhood
I had growing up in this era.
Could we have all lived in communes
as an alternative to the rat race
perhaps?
It seems human nature is the biggest thing working against living more freely.
"My old buddy
you are moving much to slow"

Promised comes blazing out of the gates on a mission!
Sugaree, typical early placement, more emphatic than typical.
MAMU puts you in the saddle, the set is off to as blazing start.
Deal pulls us back a little.
BTW, 10 yd penalty, delay of game (Bob missed his vocal intro point). To me, this is Bob's theme song for the era (of course PITB is in another way), he really pours his heart into it. Strong finish and, it appears, I can't believe I forgot this... this is a DONNA FREE SHOW (in the first set)! Extra Star rating just for that!!!
China Rider is full of pep, we achieve X factor in the transition. Solid work all the way through this one.
Mexicali, early sleazy dead, constant crowd pleaser. Some exceptional noodling from the kind of exceptional noodles!
Bertha features great Jerry tone, and a solid, synched effort from the supporting cast. Great!

PITB where it must be. Jerry doesn't waste time, getting straight to weird when the lyrics stop. His tone is great, and by the 4 minute mark he's firmly in control while the band stays on theme. Jerry puts in overtime on this one, one of the standouts from an era of standouts.
Gone is one of the faster tempos I've heard. I wonder what drove them this fine day?
Jack Straw is a song I typically prefer after retirement, but this one is flawless and entertaining. Bob in particular sounds great on rhythm.
Bird Song features more great Bob rhythm work. This is one of the false start versions, I suppose it gets them back on the same page? I am not really into it, because it prevented them from potentially leaving theme, which the bird often threatens to do, but never does. Anyhow, not a big deal because it really just signals a return to theme. We also get two jams, one after the first verse, one after the second, I like the later arrangement where they put the two jams together between the verses. Anyhow, this are minor criticisms, this is an amazing bird song!
GSET to close the set features that amazing tone we all know and love. The noodles definitely overflow the cup, even if Donna does her best to drive me crazy while Jerry is rocking out. Billy deserves some special mention too! A+ way to end an A+ set!

Dark Star>El Paso, as I recently covered, this is one of four appearances of this combo, and two from within this year.
Dark Star starts off in a thematic jam that stays mellow and beautiful. After the 7 minute mark we generally leave the theme in a energetic way, pushed by Billy. It's electric, this Dark Star, sometimes you get the feeling of flying through space. Sometimes you're adrift in a broken ship... in this, you're going warp speed, stars whizzing by. After the eleven minute mark we get the first verse. The jam is again driven, Phil later gets a solo after the 20 minute mark, which he handles very groovily. They all come back into the mix and it's chaos at its finest. Starting after 28 minutes, Jerry goes into the jam that often leads to the Tiger, true to form, it has the head fake. It's dark and creepy, you're waiting for the beast to leap out of the bushes, having seen his orange race by... the cat never strikes, but the threat was worth it...
And then the way they go into El Paso, just perfect. Jerry takes a different approach to much of the noodles, and of course, it works great.
Sing Me Back home gives you a minute to pieces back together after what just went down. I'd have preferred not to have put them back together though. Still, it isn't a deal breaker by any means, I enjoyed it.
Sugar Magnolia is just about properly perfect. It's not crazy energy, but it's flawless and fun, while maintaining some zip.
Double encore of Casey Jones and OMSN to end the show, as though they hadn't already played long enough!

Top notch show. The only weakness, as I see it, is the lack of lengthy meat sequences.
Consider it filet mignon, I suppose... you have, PITB, C>R, maybe Bird Song you could through in, and of course the awesome Dark Star>El Paso combo.

It goes by one name, like a supermodel...truly awesome show...it was a very hot day, in the 90s, there is a very sublime vibe to the performance...the first set really takes off five songs i with with perhaps the best China>Rider, Mexicali gets a bit out of tune, but Garcia's playing with make you laugh in a good way...progressing through the show, you get top three versions of Playin, Bird Song, GSET, massive Dark Star, El Paso, sweet Sing Me Back Home...check it out for yourself...excellent sounding sbd version remix by dank seed...

I've been hearing for decades about how this is 'the best show of all time'. And for decades, every five or ten years I'll pull it out and listen, and think, 'sure, that's a solid late-72 show', and then put it away, opting for the even-better late-72 like Baltimore, Spectrum and both Stanleys. This one wouldn't even crack my top ten for the year. That said, intense versions of favorites like Playing, China Cat, Bird Song, and Dark Star give it four stars, but still the overall awesomeness of it eludes me.

if he thought this wasn't one of the best shows of '72. not only is it the best show of the year, it's the best Dead show of all time!!!

i wish this version was still up at etree. as hilarious as the stage banter is, i prefer it edited out.

It doesn't make sense that this show can't be downloaded; I had it on tape, years ago but, now, it's not available for DL? WTF??

I AM SITTING HERE TRYING TO WRITE ABOUT THIS SHOW AND CANNOT FIND THE WORDS.JUST LISTEN AND YOU TO WILL HAVE A TOUGH TIME COMING UP WITH WORDS.SO I SAY LISTEN FOR YOURSELF AND DIG IT.SIMPLY SAID ''IT DOES NOT GET ANY BETTER''.PERIOD.

this version sounds the most "stereo" out of all of them, this is the one to listen to first, then check jay serafins if you wanna hear the stage banter.